The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is a mecca for intelligent talk about triple-A game design, but it also hosts a huge assortment of indie games. We've got boots on the ground at the Moscone convention center and controllers in our hands, playing and vetting through dozens of upcoming indie games to let you know what's worth getting excited for. Check out our evolving, expanding list of the best indie gems from GDC 2016.

Tear Through

Tear Through is an isometric action-tactical game being developed by Bandit-1 that features icons instead of people. You play as a SWAT officer completing various objectives in different levels, like rescuing hostages or defusing bombs. The array of options available to the player, such as peeking under the door to survey the surroundings or shooting through walls to take out foes, makes Tear Through much deeper than it appears initially. Tear Through is in early stages of development and you can find out more info about it here on the game's website.

Gears of War has always had a fair amount of creativity stocked in the enemies it throws at players, as well as the weapons it has given them to mow them down. Though Gears of War 4 looks to make some changes when it comes to tone and scope, The Coalition aims to keep both enemies and weapons as delightfully nasty as they've ever been.

Old favorites like the chainsaw equipped Lancer and the trusty snub pistol return, but with some aesthetic changes. To help instill the more survival-horror aspects of the game, the Lancer now has a flashlight attached to it that simultaneously makes targets easier to see and highlights their creepier features. Of course, not all changes to the classics are done for pragmatic reasons. The team admits the Gnasher now has a shell rail attached to it simply because, "it looks cool." While these additions are mostly cosmetic and don't fundamentally change how these weapons function, they are pleasant to look at.

The new weapons we've seen are essentially construction equipment that has been repurposed for violent means. The Coalition chose construction equipment in particular as an inspiration because of Gears of War 4's setting becasue the humans left on Sera are trying to build a new life after the war with the Locust. The two new big weapons we saw (and played with) are the Dropshot and the Buzzkill.

The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is a mecca for intelligent talk about triple-A game design, but it also hosts a huge assortment of indie games. We've got boots on the ground at the Moscone convention center and controllers in our hands, playing and vetting through dozens of upcoming indie games to let you know what's worth getting excited for. Check out our evolving, expanding list of the best indie gems from GDC 2016.

Tear Through

Tear Through is an isometric action-tactical game being developed by Bandit-1 that features icons instead of people. You play as a SWAT officer completing various objectives in different levels, like rescuing hostages or defusing bombs. The array of options available to the player, such as peeking under the door to survey the surroundings or shooting through walls to take out foes, makes Tear Through much deeper than it appears initially. Tear Through is in early stages of development and you can find out more info about it here on the game's website.

Just Cause 3's Sky Fortress DLC released today, and it gives Rico a jetpack and a flying fortress to try and blow up.

Andrew Reiner and myself take a look at the DLC, remark on its many, possibly intentional references to The Avengers, and do our best to pull off explosive feats of jetpack-assisted sky acrobatics. The DLC is available as part of the game's season pass, but can also be purchased separately.

PlayStation VR is poised to take the console market by storm as the first virtual-reality system to be released from any of the three major home-console manufacturers. Rather than the typical competition of Microsoft and Nintendo, however, Sony Computer Entertainment must focus on challengers from the PC side of the industry. PlayStation must now compete with the likes of Oculus and Vive as while simultaneously blazing the trail for any other console manufacturers looking at making the leap to VR.

I spoke with Sony’s president of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment, Shuhei Yoshida, and director of PlayStation Magic Lab, Richard Marks, on the beginning of PlayStation’s interest in VR, the steps the company took to get to where it is today, and more. Because my two conversations hit on many of the same topics, I’ve combined them into one discussion, which you can read below.

Where did PlayStation VR start, and how did it get to where it is now?

People often have their favorite streamers to watch and gaming personalities to follow, but new development possibilities are taking place that allow viewer participation to get those hordes of fans and watchers into the action. Utilizing account level experience points and other perks, viewers will soon be able to actually have real power in what’s happening on stream. Three games at GDC 2016 showcased some of the new potential of Twitch-integrated games.

SuperfightIt’s sort of like Cards Against Humanity, with each player selecting cards that he or she thinks will make the most powerful combo. Iconic figures like Chuck Norris, Cthulu, Loki, and He-Man face off with an arsenal of other wild and often hilarious powers and weapons, like catarangs. After the crowd sees who’s fighting who, they can start to build hype for their favorite via the chat, with the hype levels building into visible power for the favored card. Streamers make their cases as to why their particular combo is the most compelling, and after a few minutes it’s time to vote, with the crowd favorite taking down the opposing card. This goes on for a bit, tournament style, with both viewers and streamers accumulating experience points as they play. I can already tell this one is going to be a big winner at the Game Informer office with editors squaring off.

Since the series' debut, Gears of War players have logged an impressive 2.3 billion hours playing Gears of War's multiplayer. The Coalition is acutely aware that it has a passionate fan base looking forward to digging into the next online Gears experience. Our recent trip to visit the studio for our April cover story focused largely on the game's story-focused campaign, but we were still able to eke out a few juicy details about multiplayer.

1) Multiplayer is getting a bigger focus this time:"Historically, the campaign is the hardest thing to make out of any of these games," says studio head Rod Fergusson. "So if you look at the development of Gears one, it was probably 90 percent single player, 10 percent multiplayer. Over the course of the franchise, that percentage shifted, but I don't think it ever got above 70/30. Coming here, multiplayer has a much greater position at the table. On day one, as we were prototyping our first campaign experience, we were also building multiplayer maps. We really want to meet the needs of not just recreational players but eSports players, and it's something we've been thinking about for the entire development cycle."

2) Ryan Cleven is the Lead MP Designer:Cleven's resume includes series like Need for Speed and SSX.

Today is Pi day, and in honor of the occasion lets talk about the cake alternative as it appears in video games.

We originally posted this feature on 2015's Pi day, which was extra special since the date was 3.14.15 – Pi to first four decimal places. This year isn't quite as special, but it's still an occasion to celebrate, and we've added a new entry to call out a pie that has appeared in the time between Pi days.

This year's Game Infarcer cover mixes From Software's haunting atmosphere with the surreal world of Dr. Suess. A match made in heaven? Probably.

Ever since 2006, the cover for our annual Game Infarcer parody feature has been drawn by artist Zander Cannon. Cannon is the mind behind works like Kaijumax and Heck, and he sat down with us to talk about the process for creating this year's cover art. We've talked about the process before, but this is the first time we've had Cannon in-studio to record his thoughts and walk us through the process.

Plus, he points out a bunch of obscure Dr. Suess Easter eggs that only the most dedicated readers will recognize. Enjoy!

Not too long ago, we started the Game Informer Game Club where we play games and talk about them with our (super-cool) community. The inaugural game has been Final Fantasy VII, and we’ve already had two discussion about the first disc. Now we’re gearing up for our second in-depth session that covers all of disc two.

Mark your calendars, because the next GI Game Club session is happening on March 17, and will air as a segment on the Game Informer Show podcast. If you still need to catch up on our discussions, you can watch part one here, and part two here. For our third talk, we’re discussing everything up to the end of disc two (i.e. through the events that lead you back to Midgar).

Like last time, we have a few conversation topics to think about as you play through the game with us:

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Jun 7, 2017Updates and bug fixes OTW.

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Jun 7, 2017Updates and bug fixes OTW.

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